The City of Glass, The Dancing Mermaid 1:33 A.P. (after-Peak), Day 5 of the War of the Facets
You all returned to the City of Glass promptly after bidding Ghadir farewell. The water genasi seemed glad to be rid of you, though it wasn't personal. He was just eager to get away and hide. Your own trip to the portal was uneventful.
Returning to the City of Glass was a bit of a shock. Aremshah's weather was cool and much drier. Stepping from the plane of Air to the plane of Water gave everyone but Okeanos a brief, vague sensation of drowning as your lungs adapted to the sudden increase in humidity. Fortunately, though, you had the information you needed, and Thalivan would be waiting. But it was late and Thalivan was probably resting, so you adjourned to your inn for the night.
The next day, you sought Thalivan out at the Dancing Mermaid, but he was out and had left a message that he wouldn't be available until sometime after peak. It was while you were banging around town waiting for him that you noticed something peculiar that hadn't been in the city when you left.
Dao.
Ordinarily, the sight of a dao wouldn't be much to make note of, but there were a lot of dao in the city today -- or at least, more than any of you had seen in one place outside of Earth before. Most of them wore tabards emblazoned with the same sigil (DC 20 Streetwise check to identify). The genies ignored or shot down any attempts to talk to them, and went about their business as normal. It was odd, though. The City of Glass normally had a small dao presence simply for the sake of trade. But Water as a general rule didn't have the gems, metals, and minerals that most dao greedily sought.
In any case, about an hour and a half after peak, you returned to the Dancing Mermaid to meet with Thalivan. Once a page announced your arrival, the arcane had you come up to his suite for lunch. As usual with Thalivan, the food was delicious and plentiful. If nothing else, the arcane treated his employees well.
"So," he began as you entered and sat down. His fingers unrolled in greeting before he picked up his utensils and began eating. "Did you meet with Ghadir? What did you learn?"
Seigi takes the shift to the Plane of Water rather badly; his arthritis plays up due to the increase in damp, and fairly soon he's hobbling like a man even older than his years, leaning heavily on his cane. He does eye the Dao in a puzzled manner, but .... 'Odd symbol. Don't think I've seen it before, but ... Hmm - oh? Aaargh! My joints! When this arrangement has run its course, I am finding a nice desert world to vacation on for a month!'
What interests the old man most about Thalivan's hospitality is not the food, though he does enjoy it. The opportunity to sit down is. "Well, we learned someone had dispatched an assassin to silence your old friend Ghadir," he replies with a drawl. "One 'Sharish'. Mayhap you've heard of him? Ghadir himself informed us there are underground portals to Salt located in the City of Glass. They are supposed to have been shut down centuries ago, but he kindly gave us a map to their location.
I might surmise someone has reactivated them, and now wants to keep that fact, as well as the why and the how of it, hidden. If that is correct, I shouldn't wonder that several other knowledgeable individuals have recently been .... terminally inconvenienced. Have you heard anything along those lines?"
(OOC: Streetwise check: 15.)